Candidate: Andrew Brandt
Office: Boulder Valley School District Board of Education District D
Website: https://www.brandtforbvsd.co/
QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES (200 words maximum for each response):
Are you the parent of a current or former BVSD student? Please let us know when your child attended BVSD.
“I have two kids currently in BVSD; One is currently a sophomore and one is a senior in high school. They have both attended BVSD schools since Kindergarten.”
What motivated you to run for BVSD Board of Education?
“In the spring, a friend reached out to me and told me that four of our seven board seats in the district would be open this coming November – three of the members will be at the end of their second term, and the fourth decided not to run. As someone who is politically aware (though by no means an activist), I was alarmed that BVSD would be ripe for a takeover by the kinds of people who have been organizing upend school boards around the country and enact policies based on an agenda driven by hate and fear. These things aren’t just happening in places like Florida or Texas, either. I think what has happened in Woodland Park is a travesty – an ideologically driven group of people who have devastated their school district through exhibitions of casual cruelty, who reject the idea of leading with compassion and care and a desire to shepherd and improve public education. They’ve destroyed a perfectly good school district with their clownish buffoonery, violating public meeting laws, driving out nearly half of their instructional staff. I’m committed to not letting that kind of disaster happen here in Boulder. “
What do you see as the major issue(s) facing the school district? Please list five issues in order of priority, and give a brief explanation of why the issue matters.
- “Declining enrollment will be the most pressing issue the next board faces. Fewer families with school aged children can afford to live in our district, and our funding depends on the number of kids in class each day. The board will need to be creative in developing ways to counter this trend and find new, permanent funding streams.
- Disproportionate discipline, simply put, means that some kids seem to get disciplined more, and more harshly, than others, and we know that heavily disciplined kids are less likely to succeed or to graduate. The district is starting to collect data as a way to make the issue more transparent, but it’ll take a board committed to equity to find permanent solutions.
- Differentiated funding has made a major difference improving some of the schools with the greatest needs in the district, but the funds used for that program will run out soon. The next board will need to with with the superintendent to find new funding sources to keep up the good work that’s already been done.
- The policy change by the current board that replaced armed, uniformed police in schools with school safety advocates has been a huge success at keeping kids safe, but the SSA program is still in its infancy, and we need to closely monitor its progress and make adjustments, if necessary, to keep it successful.
- The high cost of energy eats away at school budgets. Schools need to be able to tolerate increasingly wide temperature variations during the school year, and we have a lot of potential to turn school buildings into net energy producers, if we elect a board with the vision to take on the challenges of climate change boldly.”
Do you agree with BVSD’s decision to make a $32,500 settlement with a family who alleged that the district’s equitable discipline policies constitute discrimination against white students? Please explain why or why not.
“This settlement is a travesty for justice, but it never came before the board because it did not meet the financial threshold that would have required the board to approve or deny the settlement. I know that schools are not made of money, and I realize the cost of fighting this lawsuit could have far exceeded the amount the district settled for. But I am troubled that a settlement sends a message to the public that the district thinks it could have lost the lawsuit, that the allegations in the lawsuit had any merit at all. That is the most distressing part of this, because in reading the full narrative of what happened, the district did everything within its policy guidelines to try to mitigate a playground dispute, and left everyone feeling worse. The coming board needs to do additional work around clarifying the district’s expectations and guidelines for staff around these issues, including additional implicit bias training, and ensuring more oversight of subjective discipline. We can and must do better.”
Emergency department visits for sexual violence among Boulder County teens doubled from 2020 to 2021, then again in 2022, according to data from Boulder County Public Health and reported in Boulder Weekly ó do you agree with how BVSD has responded? Please explain why or why not.
“We cannot fix problems when we cannot admit we have problems, and I am not running for the school board to pretend that problems don’t exist. I’m disturbed by the sharp increase in these crime reports. They speak to a broader need in the school community to change the way we engage on the topic of sexual assault. When it comes to sex ed, the curriculum has historically focused on pregnancy and STDs, but as adults, we must bring about a culture change on consent and boundaries. This has begun, and it must continue. It was incredibly brave for students to come together to confront a school culture at some schools that they felt did not support them in the ways they deserved to be supported, and it’s up to all of us in the community to ensure that we dismantle any code of silence that forms around sexual violence. The district is on the right track to address these challenges, and needs the support of a board that wants to permanently change school culture districtwide, in a way that not only supports victims, but makes it less likely people will be victimized in the future.”
What BVSD policies would you change, and why?
“This is a tough question, because I feel like I need more information from families about which policies are not working well for them before I answer it. But I can speak to one policy that I identified early on as potentially problematic.
As someone who has spent a lot of my professional life working in the cybersecurity field, I grok why the district has a device abuse policy, especially considering that computers are now required for nearly every grade level. But I also would like to tweak policies that would give the district flexibility to develop curriculum teaching kids skills to evade phishing, malware, fraud, cyberstalking, sextortion, manipulation, and inappropriate requests from “online” friends. I’d also like the district to offer certification programs for cybersecurity as part of the career & technical education program. But in order to avoid violating policy, the board will have to amend the “student use of technology” regulations, which prohibits a list of almost every activity that a cybersecurity analyst might perform. So that’s at least one policy I’d like to gently nudge in the direction that would lead to a more informed (and job-ready) student population, and more tech-savvy teachers, too.”
What BVSD policies do you support, and why?
“I’ve spent a lot of time digging through the policies the district has adopted and I find that, the more I read, the more I find that I am continuously impressed with how the policies have been amended and modified over the years to account for and to address topics like proportionality in discipline, promoting mental and physical wellness in both in-person and distanced learning environments, support for historically marginalized groups, and a desire to bring about a world class public education system. BVSD policies on the whole are thoughtful, rooted in kindness and a desire for the best possible outcomes. They are a masterclass of guidelines on how to run a school system with empathy and equity, and it is because policies are both precious and fragile that I want to defend the work that has been done, while finding the small adjustments that can be made to improve schools, address contemporary issues that may not have existed previously, and make life and learning better for kids, teachers, parents, staff, custodians, bus drivers, food service workers, and everyone else.”
How will you engage with community members?
“As a candidate I’ve been humbled by how willing people are to speak with me about the topics they most care about in public education, and if elected, I don’t want that kind of communication to stop. School board public comment periods are fine for some people, but as a board member I will hold town hall meetings, conduct “office hours” where people can meet with me, visit with PTO groups and our various parent and school councils, and will visit with families in their communities at their invitation. Not everyone has the time or the ability to make public comment in meetings, and I find it incredibly insightful to speak face to face with people. I look forward to being an active listener and an engaged public servant.”
What makes you the best candidate to serve on the BVSD Board of Education? Put simply: How do you stand out against other candidates?
“I do not have decades of experience in public policy or in public education, but I do bring to the table a professional career that has been driven by a passion to help those who need help, and a calling to prevent harm. As an investigative journalist, I dug deeply into topics that made a difference in people’s lives, to right wrongs and bring about lasting change. As a cybersecurity expert, I extend my own ability to protect people by serving as my employer’s representative to an industry assocation comprised of 36 cybersecurity companies who share knowledge and crime information because we believe that, by working together, we can make a greater impact and protect even more people. I would bring that spirit of cooperation and collaboration to the school board, and relish the idea of using my unique background and experience, my technical knowledge, and my compassion to help promote and protect public education and help shape BVSD into the best school district in the country. We must elect more hackers, at every level of government, because hackers are the kinds of bold, creative problem-solvers our schools – and the world – need right now.”
